OREM, Utah -- Kirk Jowers has an answer for whether Mitt Romney's presidential bid was lost because of Mormonism:

"I can unequivocally tell you that the answer is 'yes, no and maybe.'"

Jowers' comment elicited laughter at the "Mormonism in the Public Mind" conference on Friday, April 3, at Utah Valley University. He is director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah and associate director of the Institute of Public and International Affairs.

According to Jowers, in October 2007 many pundits were saying Romney was on his way to winning. He had focused on the early primaries and was overcoming the deficit of name recognition between him and John McCain and Rudy Guilaini. "It looked like he might actually run the table," Jowers said.

But he didn't.

"What happened? Iowa happened. Mike Huckabee happened. In short: It was one of the most, if not the most, religiously bigoted campaigns. But, a very effective short-term campaign for that month in Iowa. That took Mitt down," Jowers said.

Huckabee's statement about Mormons believing that Jesus and Satan are brothers was just one example of how religion came into the campaign in Iowa.

"(Huckabee) tried to explain it away," said Jowers, "but if you looked at what his campaign was doing, and supporters were doing throughout Iowa with their handouts, with some of his TV ads -- it was a very shrewd political comment because it got so much attention."

After Iowa, religion was not as much a factor, according to Jowers. It became more a foreign affairs vs. economic pendulum for Romney. Although he was trusted with the economy, he was not trusted as much in foreign affairs. Jowers said that when the prime minister of Pakistan was assassinated Romney and McCain exchanged about eight points in the polls.

It is this expertise that gives Romney the lead for the Republican nomination for 2012, Jowers said. "How our current president does will obviously determine whether that is a great position to be in or not."

During the campaign, Romney was in a difficult position regarding discussing his religion. "He couldn't do enough to satisfy the critics," Jowers said. "On the other hand, where do you cross the line? Where do you make it more about your religion and less about the fact that you are running for president?"

What concerned Jowers was a poll that asked people if a person were nominated by his party and were qualified, would they vote for that person if he were a Mormon. The poll found that 24 percent would not vote for a Mormon even if that person were the nominee. "A good quarter. That's a tough block to move off of," he said.

Romney wasn't the only candidate who had controversy surrounding his religion. Barack Obama also came under some fire for his former pastor's statements. To Jowers, however, surveys showed that Obama skated through. "There certainly was a double standard on religion for Romney," he said.

Religion permeated Romney's bid for the presidency. It was mentioned in every article. There was what Jowers called "soft bigotry," especially in Iowa. "There is a great argument to be made that he lost the Republican nomination in Iowa due to his religion," Jowers said.

So will Huckabee be a factor in Romney's bid for 2012? Jowers doesn't think so, because of two factors. First, the landscape will be different. The Republican brand took a beating under President Bush. Second, Huckabee probably won't be a viable candidate.

 "I personally don't think that Huckabee has any real future running again. His talk show, I don't think is helping him in being a serious candidate in the future,"
Jowers said. "So I don't think the Huckabee-Romney dynamic will be nearly as interesting or ferocious as it may have been perceived to be in 2008."

E-MAIL: mdegroote@desnews.com